EXPRESS YOURSELF

Since I was a little girl, fashion has been a way of expressing myself, allowing me to cultivate a different part of my personality at any moment. I use it as the physical manifestation and illumination of my inner feelings--a wearable art. That's why I look forward to my time in front of the closet!

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out?" - DR. SEUSS

Sometimes its hard to find the right way of doing it and staying true to your own style so here are some things I find helpful when I dress and how I treat my clothes:

1. Remember that style results from what you can create, not what you can purchase.
2. Dress for your mood. (No black on a bad day.)
3. Step out of your comfort zone.
4. When buying something new, look for durable,and high quality. (It might be pricier but It will last longer.)
5. Hang up clothes immediately after wear to reduce the need to wash and iron.
6. Break fashion rules. (Just not these.)

Fashion can be used to transform energy and break barriers. It starts conversation, affects morale, and connects cultures. Sure, they're just clothes! But we live our crazy, and magical lives in them.

So...respect your clothes and respect yourself. And let your beautiful light shine!

Love and kisses

Denise

AUTUMN COLORS

White lace top - ROSS STORE

Floral pants - RHAPSODIELLE

Brown Leather Boots - TODS

White Watch - WAL-MART

Scarf - TARGET

DIY: I JUST NEED A MORE INTERESTING PAIR OF JEANS IN MY WARDROBE

When you are on a budget like me, sometimes you can’t freshen up your wardrobe with the latest and greatest fashion trends or the cutest pants you’ve ever seen on Pinterest.  Sad, right? No, not that sad!  You can take some of your older, more boring pair of jeans and make them a cute new pair of jeans with this easy DIY.

This is my DIY called “I just need a more interesting pair of jeans in my wardrobe.”

Ok so all you need is:

1. A pair of jeans.  They can be any color.
2. Acrylic paint.  Also can be any color of your choice.
3. Paint brush/sponge.  I’m a paintbrush kinda gal, so I used a paintbrush.
4. A plate to put your paint.
5. A cup of water.
6. A stencil.  You can buy it, or you can make it.

All you need to do is:

1. Get your stencil ready.  I cut mine out of a thin cardboard.  (You’ll want something harder than a regular sheet of paper, and thinner than regular cardboard) Fold it in half and cut a shape of a heart out. 

2. Place it on your pants, hold it down so that none of the edges lift up, and dab dab dab.  Don’t put a lot of paint on your brush, or it will leak through and create blob rather than a heart.  You don’t need much paint at all.  And you don’t need to mix any water with your paint either. 

3. To make sure that you have an even space between hearts, put the left side of your stencil where you put your last heart.  Like this:

4. Paint one row, then move down and put the top part of your stencil under 2 painted hearts.  Your next heart should be in the middle of the top two hearts.  

5. Keep repeating this process, until you have covered your jeans with hearts!

It is that easy! 

Acrylic dries really quickly, but before painting another side, make sure your hearts have dried completely. 

Done!

Much better, right?

The best part about this DIY, aside from being super easy, is that there are many possibilities to painting your pants.  You can use any shape.  A bird, dog, lightning bolt (for all you Harry Potter lovers out there), polka dots, etc… 

You can paint on any color jean, with any color paint. You can paint your little girls leggings, or your son’s shorts. The sky is the limit on this DIY.  So ladies, get painting!

From your one & only,

  Rozslin

STEAK / CHICKEN ROLLS

*Adapted from http://picturetherecipe.com/index.php/recipes/balsamic-glazed-steak-rolls/

So this is a recipe that I’ve fallen in love with completely. Of course I got it from Pinterest, where else? Anyway, so there are some ingredients in the original recipe that I never keep around my house and so I decided to experiment and replace them with others that I usually have at hand.

Also, the original recipe is for steak rolls but personally I just love chicken too much to always stick to steak.

INGREDIENTS:

·         4-6 flank thin steaks / chicken breasts

·         Salt & Pepper (to taste)

·         ½ cup BBQ sauce (or any sauce you like really; I’ve used a sweet glaze sauce and it works perfectly)

·         1 tsp olive oil

·         Meat softener (cause who even likes tough meat, right?)

·         Let’s not forget toothpicks

Veggie Filling:

·         1 carrot

·         1 bell pepper

·         1 chayote (The original ingredient is zucchini, but if there are any other zucchini haters out there, this is a much tastier veggie to put in the steaks haha)

·         ½ onion

·         ¼ cup soy sauce approx.

·         Salt & pepper

·         1 tsp olive oil

Glaze Sauce

·         2 tsp butter

·         3 tbsp finely minced shallots/regular onion

·         ¼ cup vinegar (any kind you have should be fine, but if you have the balsamic vinegar, then go ahead and use that)

·         2 tbsp brown sugar (I’ve used regular sugar, too)

·         ¼ cup beef/chicken broth

1.       So first of all, prep the meat by adding some meat softener and letting that absorb for a few minutes, then season with the salt and pepper and coat with the sauce of your choice. Let that sit for a few minutes.

2.       Meanwhile, cut the veggies in long, thin strips, mix with salt, pepper and soy sauce. Heat oil in skillet and add veggie mix until crunchy. Remember not to overcook the veggies.

3.       For the sauce, heat skillet, add butter until melted and then add the minced shallots until clear. Add vinegar, sugar and chicken broth and allow it to boil. The glaze will thicken after a few minutes of this.

4.       To assemble the rolls, take about 2 spoonfuls of the veggie mix and place on the thinnest side, roll meat/chicken around veggies and secure with toothpicks.

5.       Heat olive oil in skillet and add rolls, cook for a few minutes on each side depending on how you like your meat/chicken.

6.       Finally, assemble on plate and add the glaze. If you have some veggies left (I always do) don’t let them go to waste, they are delicious! So use those as garnish and of course, mashed potatoes fit in perfectly. (I really do love  me some good old mashed potatoes)

AND THAT’S IT! FEEL FREE TO TRY THE ORIGINAL RECIPE TOO AND SEE WHICH ONE SUITS YOU BETTER.

ENJOY!

LOTS OF LOVE AND YOURS TRULY,

SAMANTHA

RIRI HEARTS MAC FALL COLLECTION 2013

Rihanna's MAC makeup collection is coming to us next month! Yey! In October MAC will launch the perfect palette of classic colors that are daring but beautiful; they are also coming out with some tools. The packaging is gold rose in a metallic finish.  So here are some images of the collection

What do you think? I am personally so excited to buy the lipsticks!

Love and kisses,

Denise

BE INSPIRED BY YOUR SURROUNDINGS

Decorating your home can be much harder than you might have thought!  At least that is how it was for me.  (My mom made it look like a piece of cake!)  But here is what has helped me as a newly-wed and still helps me now with decorating my home:

Be inspired by your surroundings.  Go out and be a tourist in your own city or town.  Take pictures of anything that catches your eye and bring that same inspiration to your home!  Recently we took a trip to Guatemala.  There, in the market, the colors were popping out every where I went.  So, I took pictures of everything I liked and felt inspired add some more color to my home.

The most important thing to remember about home décor is that you don’t need to be an interior design student to have a beautiful home. Here are a few tips on decorating.

·         Decorate with what you like.

·          Think about what looks good together.

·         Don’t OVER think and stress yourself out

·          Look at the color combinations of nature to help you out.

·         Use your favorite colors.

·         Don’t let your husband help ( haha just kidding)

·         Don’t be afraid of color.

·         If you’re on a budget like me, have an idea, and do it one thing at a time.

·         Most of all, if you’re going to do it, do it bold. (like go big or go home, but for decorating)

The truth is, is that there is beauty all around you.  You just have to have the eye for it.  If you think you don’t have an eye for creativity or inspiration, it’s not true.  Everyone has an eye for inspiration, because you can be inspired by simply finding what you like or what you think is beautiful. 

                                          from your one and only,

                                                             Rozslin 

CLASSIC FALL OUFIT

Flower Crop Shirt - H&M 

High Waist Black Leggings - TJ Max

Boots - Hunter

Sunglasses - ASOS.com

DIY Anthropologie Lamp

When I was expecting baby Sarah I was inspired by this lamp I saw online and wanted to do it for the nursery room. I love this lamp, its a long proyect but it is definitely worth it. Hope you like it as much as I do.

I started by getting a lamp and taking the shade of and wraping the lamp skeleton with heavy linen fabric.

1.Create 4x4 inch squares of that same fabric and them cutting those squares into circles.

2.Take your glue gun and put a ring shape of glue about half way in the circle.  Kinda like a bulls-eye.  This part definitely doesn’t have to be perfect and you can adjust how you do the glue to get either a tight puff or more loose.

3. Take the fabric circle and gather it at the middle to create the little puff.

4. After the glue has cooled, cut the base of the puff off so you’re working with a flat surface to glue to the lampshade.

5.Add a little hot glue to the base of the puff and stick it to the lampshade. 

This DIY is pretty time consuming but I think its beautiful! 

Hope you enjoy diy-ing.

Love and Kisses 

Denise 

Mexican Turkey Alambre

Hi everyone! It’s the middle of the week and it’s about time we post something about food.
Since I have to feed three hungry men every day while living the college-student life, it’s important for me to be able to make simple, easy, quick but still delicious food that will satisfy their bellies. 
If any of you are looking for a recipe that fits these specific requirements, then I’m sure you’ll love 
my version of a Mexican Alambre:

INGREDIENTS:

• 6 smoked turkey breast cutlets (You can use, pork, chicken, beef or even shrimp, the
possibilities are endless!)

• 1 cup grated cheese

• 1 red or green pepper (or both)

• ½ purple onion

• Salt & pepper

• Vegetable/Olive oil.

Prep time: 7 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

(Please excuse my humble kitchen haha)

STEPS:

1. Chop the meat in medium sized pieces, also chop onion and peppers while you’re at it 

2. Heat oil in a pan and fry for a few minutes

3. In separate pan, heat oil and stir fry onion.

4. Pass onions to meat pan.

5. Add chopped pepper to meat and onion mixture.

6. Add cheese, mix and cover the pan for 2-3 minutes for cheese to melt.

7. Garnish with mashed potatoes, they make a great combo.

8. And why not heat some tortillas and enjoy some delicious tacos? 

Serves 3-4 people.

I hope you try it out and are satisfied with the results!  See you next time!

Lots of love & yours truly,

Samantha

My favorite beauty secrets from NY Fashion Week

NYFW is over! so sad right? But I always love to see what the new trends for beauty are going to be. So looking at runway shots I found my favorite beauty looks, and I wanna show you some of my secrets of how to recreate these looks. So take a look, try them out and have fun!

This picture is from the Tibi show, and seriously this is my most favorite look from NYFW! I mean the hair, the makeup and even the nails! so many of us dont realize how nails can take a look to a diferent level. But nails are coming back strong and a matte nail is so in!

To recreate this look you can get a top coat  Matte Maker in sephora  for $18, sephora.com

and on Essie Matte About You for $10, essie.com

Ok so this look is from Prada, the whole wet look is so awesome and fresh I love it. And my little secret to recreate the washed red lips effect is simple but genious. All you have to do is to apply the lipstick, then blotting with a makeup remover wipe. THATS IT! 

At Alexander Wang runway the models had great eyebrows! If you wanna go for that look you can tame those eyebrows with a toothbrush. It doesn't scratch skin like traditional brow brushes. Spritz hairspray on the brush first (not near your eye, please!) to keep hairs in place and youre done.

This look is awesome! and its from Jason Wu's runway look. Its a new twist to the classic smokey eye. To get that smoldering hue of 2 different colors you first line the eyes with a purple shadow then apply a blue eyeshadow over it. 

This is my favorite messy-sexy updo at Natelie Ratabesi. All you have to do is a centered fishtail, then turn it into a spiral, and then secure with pins and your good to go.

Create headband with your own hair! ,It looks fresh, clean and beautiful! Just apply serum all over your hair, then section off the front with a comb, and secured it with an elastic under the back half of the hair. 

I recomend my favorite serum Kérastase Fibre Architecte serum its $42 but very worth it kerastase-usa.com

Dont be scared of  wearing pink! its flattering...see the glamorous seventies lids at Gucci for proof. The key is lots of mascara (without it, you'll look sick). 

CoverGirl Flamed Out Mascara for $7.50

MAC Eye Shadow in Passionate for $15

Nineties chocolate brown lipstick feels fresh with a layer of red underneath. This look was at Phillip Lim's show and im pretty excited to see this lipstick com back for autum. 

Enjoy these looks and dont be affraid to try something new.

Love and kisses Denise